THE CORPORATION LIBRARY 81 stirring decade that ensued, the people evidently were moved to read as well as to make history, for in December, 1771, there suddenly sprang into being another Subscription Library, denominated the Union Library Society. Though its brief career is recounted in a later section, it is pertinent to say here that the Common Council granted the new applicants leave to place their collection in "the Eastermost part of the Room" containing the books of the New York Society Library.1 This was in April, 1774. There were now three distinct collections of books in the old Library Room in the City Hall. Still a fourth was added in May, 1776, when the Library of King's College was deposited there on that institution's being turned into a military hospital by the "Rebels." Thus indeed may the city's whole hope of letters be likened to the marketer with all his eggs in one basket; and, alas, the simile continues to the disastrous crash, with but a small portion rescued from the sorry downfall. The sad story as told by eye-witnesses has often been repeated in print. Of the old Corporation Library, the venerable dean of that little assemblage of books, the "Digest" of the S. P. G. records says: "Sufficient security for peaceful times, it availed not during the Revolutionary War."2 And in the manuscript journal of the Society appears this abstract of a letter from the Rev. Dr. Charles Inglis, rector of Trinity Church, dated at New York, May 1, 1778:3 A library left to the Society in trust by the Revd Dr Millington in the year 1728, for the use of their Missionaries, and the li 1 Common Council Minutes, VIII, 24-25. * Classified Digest of the Records of the S. P. G., 1701-1892. London, 1893. P. 798. This letter cannot be found among the S. P. G. papers. brary and philosophical apparatus belonging to the College, together with a large Subscription Library, belonging to the Inhabitants, were, after the King's Troops took possession of the City, plundered, sold, and dispersed by our soldiers, before a discovery was made. As soon as the affair came to Dr Inglis's knowle[d]ge, he applied for redress, a proclaimation was issued for returning the books, but not a tenth part of them, and those the least valuable, and the sets broken, were returned. He hath collected into one place, and sorted those that belonged to the several Libraries, and with the consent of the Mayor of the City, hath taken the Millington Library into his own possession. Their amount is about 80 volumes out of 1000; and the most valuable of these are a few that he had borrowed before the troubles, and had preserved with his own books. He begs to know the Society's determination respecting these bookswhether they shall be left in their former state, or remain in his possession, or be given to Trinity Church, the Library of which was consumed by the Fire in Sept! 1776. The committee on this communication was "Agreed in opinion that . . . the remains of the Millington Library be left in the custody of D: Inglis"; whereupon the Society "Resolved to agree with the Committee.” Nothing further can be stated positively concerning the little remnant of the collection. When the success of the American cause became certain, Dr. Inglis set sail for Nova Scotia, of which British province he was not long afterward consecrated first Anglican bishop. His private library, which may still have included these surviving volumes, was left to his son John, third bishop of the same diocese. At the latter's death his books were scattered, most of them being taken to England and there sold. Some were given to King's College at Windsor, Nova Scotia, but its librarian has found no books with the name of Dr. Millington inscribed therein. So, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, may THE NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY 83 we not fancy a book or two of the long-defunct Corporation Library back again in England, perchance within sound once more of the old vesper bell, given to his beloved church at Stoke Newington by its pious rector, Dr. John Millington. 4. The New York Society Library, founded in 1754 INASMUCH as succeeding chapters are devoted to seting forth the history of the Society Library, it is unnecessary to give attention to this institution here, further than to indicate its proper place in the chronological series. It is well to state, however, that the Society Library differed radically in its foundation from previous Library movements in New York. It owed existence to no gift of individual, or of associate body, but was the spontaneous outgrowth of a rather general desire for improvement. It was a Subscription Library, public in the sense that any person was welcome to membership at a uniform rate, and its books soon circulated through a fair proportion of the cultivated citizens. From what has gone before, the claim cannot be substantiated that the Society Library, in its stewardship of the old Corporation Library, actually dates from 1730,- thus holding the distinction of being the oldest1 Public Library in the country,-or still less truthfully from 1713, when the Sharpe books, now in its possession, were given to found a "Publick" Library. Only by way of analogy, in consequence of its close association with these older collections, may the Society Li 1 The term "oldest" is not used at all in the sense of earliest. brary-in the sense in which the Father of Waters, in conjunction with its tributary, the Missouri, is the longest river in the world-be termed the oldest Public Library in the United States. 5. The Library of King's College, 1757-17761 As elsewhere noted, the founders of the Society Library in 1754 had advanced as a motive for its establishment the hope that a Public Library "may be also advantageous to our intended College." This not over-confident expectation was probably justified, for not until 1760 was King's College housed in a building of its own. Its little faculty, therefore, as also its scarcely larger body of students, no doubt made glad use of the steadily growing public collection in the City Hall. Naturally, however, the need of a special reference Library was early felt by the College authorities. But there were no funds to warrant expenditure for books, so it was by gift or bequest alone that a beginning must be made. Nor had their patience long to wait. Like the old Corporation Library, its origin was due to a legacy. By the will of the Hon. Joseph Murray, one of its Governors, as also a member of the first board of Trustees of the Society Library, who died in April, 1757, there was devised to "the Governors of the College of 1 Sketches of this early collection have appeared in print in the several histories of Columbia College, the latest being in an article on "The Library" by Librarian James H. Canfield, LL.D., in A History of Columbia University, 1754-1904. New York, 1904. P. 427 et seq. Material in the present study is based, however, on original sources, some of which have been unavailable hitherto. 2 See pp. 136, 146. THE LIBRARY OF KING'S COLLEGE 85 the Province of New York, by whatever name they are called," the residue of his estate, including a fine library. The books were doubtless handed over with despatch, to judge from a notice inserted in the Mercury for May 16th, calling for the immediate return of any books borrowed from the testator or his "late lady." Joseph Murray Esqr Local journals eulogized this early benefactor of the College in highest terms. The Gazette of May 2d recounted how, "during the long and extensive Course of his Practice," Mr. Murray had "approved himself a Gentleman of the strictest Integrity, Fidelity, and 1 Abstract of the will of the Hon. Joseph Murray, Esq. (Liber 20, p. 233, of "Wills in the New York Surrogate's Office"), printed in The Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1896. New York, 1897. Pp. 165-166. |